Friday, November 11, 2011

Welcome to Communal Decay, your portal to the fucked up shit that is housed inside the cranium of the most defiant, often maliciously whimsical, dark force behind Vindicator, Vic Stown... often imitated, never duplicated. This is where I'll share my wildest fantasies with you, my most triumphant of stories, and my bleakest of tales. If it's on my mind, I will throw it out here, if anyone should care to read. Blogs, blurps, farts, and burps. I'm a straight forward guy with no cloaking device to hide the corpses in my closet. I hope all enjoy this intimate and often times entertaining look into the life of an artist in an independent band, doing things his own way, and eating whomever dies first. Carpe Diem, worry about the hangover tomorrow. It's not easy being in a metal band in America, but it is easy experiencing metal in America. So join me and wallow in this decay.

For the first of my monthly blogs I decided to tackle one of those topics I'm often asked by fans of Vindicator. How, why, when, and where did it all start? After endless days of concentration, I was able to bust the rust off the hinges of the two thousand-five vault of my memory banks. What I found was an off shade of yellow, heavy with the dank stench of mildew. In terms of years, it hasn't been that long. In terms of details, it's been millennia. Enjoy this first installment of:

The history of Vindicator according to (and often confused by) Vic Stown.

Chapter One: the transition from a Violent Night into an overly aggressive dawn: Vindicator is born (August 2005 - September 2005)

Violent Night - 2004

Our story begins in the picturesque basement of one Mikey B. Lial; Violent Night's rehearsal spot. It's just another evening of trying to write for the fellows of Violent Night. The band had an ep, which they pressed in very limited quantities and were in the process of writing for an actual full length. Through the many disputes of Vic and Mikey, the band's sound had progressed greatly. It’s growing pains had equated to more technicality, better written songs, and an overall tighter sound. But the tolls those growing pains would have on the members of the band would prove to be the band's demise. It was just like any other writing session the band had, Vic and Mikey bouncing ideas off each other and arguing about which parts should stay and go, song structure, and anything else two very opinionated members of any band argue about. But this time was different. This time there wasn't that climactic point which the heated argument crescendos and compromise is met. No, this time the argument ended... and so did the band. Jesse Stown and Wayne Holocaust figured it would be like any of the other disputes Vic and Mikey had had. After a few days, the two would make up and the band could get on with its existence. But not this time. It was disheartening for Jesse, Vic, and Wayne to see the three years they had invested into this project washed away by the immaturity of two dudes in their early twenties, unable to compromise and see the bigger scheme of things. But in reality those three couldn't see the bigger scheme of things, either.

Mikey and Vic - 2005

Vindicator - The Early Years

It wouldn't be long before the Stown brothers were back at it. Their desire to create and play music was burning extremely hot. Both were very anxious to do something. Not being fully in support of the direction violent night was headed; Jesse and Vic opted for a more straight forward, aggressive sound. A sound which could only be obtained by playing thrash. Wayne Holocaust was contacted and there were rumors of a recently available, lifetime friend, Marshall Law. After getting a positive response from both Wayne and Marshall, the band's line up was finalized. Marshall would front the band using a blackened thrash vocal approach like that of early Sodom and Bathory while also taking care of the band's low end, Wayne and Vic would provide the raw, brutal, sawing of speed, aggression, shred, and backing vocals, while Jesse would remain as the titanic, back bone and artillery as the band's percussion. Amongst other simple plans a band arranges when it forms; the name is probably the biggest dilemma. Each member picked out a few of their favorites and voted on what would be the band's future title. Amongst some of the names were, Skull Splitter (named after an ale Marshall and Vic consumed on special occasions and also a great destructor song), Blitzken, and Toxikill. But as soon as Marshall (who at one time was an avid warhammer player) read "Vindicator" aloud, everyone knew that was the name. The band had checked the metal-archives and there were no recorded bands having that name (respectfully excluding Vyndykator). So it was agreed, Vindicator was the name, and balls-to-the-wall, skull-stomping, old school, thrash metal was their game.